Over the years, tourism has grown to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. Today it is recognized as a powerful vehicle for economic growth. Africa has been one of the world’s fastest growing tourism regions, growing from a small base of 14.7 million visitors in 1990, to 58 million in 2016. On the other hand, investments in travel and tourism in Africa amounted to USD28.5bn, or 6.2% of total investment in 2016. These promising statistics highlight the immense potential that Africa has; Furthermore, surveys have shown that the region is increasingly becoming more attractive to international investors.

Recognizing the ability of the tourism sector to stimulate growth, attract investment and foster entrepreneurship, UNWTO, FITUR and Casa África are joining hands to host the 9th edition of INVESTOUR on 18 January 2018, in Madrid, Spain. The forum offers a fertile ground for exploring and grooming well established policies that foster sustainable tourism development, maximize benefits of investment and enhance public private partnership.

INVESTOUR also serves as an all-inclusive platform that brings together policymakers, international investors looking for business opportunities within the African market and project initiators in direct contact with one another to explore innovative approaches to increase investments in the tourism sector as well as in different fields of the tourism value chain. The forum also includes round table sessions bringing together African Ministers of Tourism, high level representatives from the public sector, regional organizations alongside other tourism stakeholders. For its 9th edition, the roundtables sessions will be structured around two main themes; (i) Brand Africa: Fostering Tourism development and investment opportunities and (ii) Biodiversity as a driver for sustainable tourism: the importance of effective community involvement.

The B2B session, on the other hand, aims at connecting initiators of quality projects from the region with investors from the international arena, thus delivering development initiatives and concrete deliverables that will contribute to the growth of the tourism sector in Africa.